Some were young, some were old, isn't it right that such an important document should have a decent range of signatories?
____________Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

Probably between 50 and 55 (extrapolating from data that only goes back to 1850) source
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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I think that these Founding Fathers did the best they could at the time, given the resources and abilities that they had. What they signed up to was relevant and appropriate at the time. But, time moved on, and the original thoughts had to be amended. They didn't get it right first time, that is clear.

Chris, actually a few of the founders were not all that old. James Madison was 25 at the time of the Declaration of Independence and in his 30's during the crafting of the Constitution as was Alexander Hamilton. That is true for James Monroe as well. Jefferson was in his 30's and 40's during the same time period.

Part of that image of 'mature' possibly had to do with the style of wigs often used.

There were older players as well (Franklin being the most obvious).

They were of course all men, and all 'men of property' -- all were white. Much of that was a function of the era.

I think if the UK had eased off the taxes to fight their war with France. After we had asked them numerious time to do. Wed still be apart of the UK. But NO, We were just colonials, The unwashed, Uneducated and disrepected fellow countrymen, Who just came to this country to make a better life.

We just wanted to be loyal citizens, But your attitude for us was what you displayed to many other subjects in your empire, At the time and up to the 20th century, SCREW YOU, We are your masters, live with it.

Now, That is the history we get on this side of the pond. Id like to hear the UK side of the what we call the revolutionary war.

Im not slamming the UK. It just a part of history. Im not proud of the way the U.S, has acted in the past or right now. Just remenber we learned our bad habits from you:)
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Old James

I think if the UK had eased off the taxes to fight their war with France. After we had asked them numerious time to do. Wed still be apart of the UK. But NO, We were just colonials, The unwashed, Uneducated and disrepected fellow countrymen, Who just came to this country to make a better life.

We just wanted to be loyal citizens, But your attitude for us was what you displayed to many other subjects in your empire, At the time and up to the 20th century, SCREW YOU, We are your masters, live with it.

Now, That is the history we get on this side of the pond. Id like to hear the UK side of the what we call the revolutionary war.

Im not slamming the UK. It just a part of history. Im not proud of the way the U.S, has acted in the past or right now. Just remenber we learned our bad habits from you:)

I think at that time in the UK, when only the 1 per-centers had the vote, you would have found a largish portion of the UK population would have been on your side.
Only 10 years earlier, had the last English - Scottish battle been fought, Culloden 1746.
And a few years latter the UK ruling classes were quaking in their boots, thinking the great unwashed were going to copy the French. French revolution started 1789.

I think if the UK had eased off the taxes to fight their war with France. After we had asked them numerious time to do. Wed still be apart of the UK. But NO, We were just colonials, The unwashed, Uneducated and disrepected fellow countrymen, Who just came to this country to make a better life.

We just wanted to be loyal citizens, But your attitude for us was what you displayed to many other subjects in your empire, At the time and up to the 20th century, SCREW YOU, We are your masters, live with it.

Now, That is the history we get on this side of the pond. Id like to hear the UK side of the what we call the revolutionary war.

Im not slamming the UK. It just a part of history. Im not proud of the way the U.S, has acted in the past or right now. Just remenber we learned our bad habits from you:)

I think at that time in the UK, when only the 1 per-centers had the vote, you would have found a largish portion of the UK population would have been on your side.
Only 10 years earlier, had the last English - Scottish battle been fought, Culloden 1746.
And a few years latter the UK ruling classes were quaking in their boots, thinking the great unwashed were going to copy the French. French revolution started 1789.

Yes but we were on your side during our so called French and Indian war.
____________
Old James

I think if the UK had eased off the taxes to fight their war with France. After we had asked them numerious time to do. Wed still be apart of the UK. But NO, We were just colonials, The unwashed, Uneducated and disrepected fellow countrymen, Who just came to this country to make a better life.

We just wanted to be loyal citizens, But your attitude for us was what you displayed to many other subjects in your empire, At the time and up to the 20th century, SCREW YOU, We are your masters, live with it.

Now, That is the history we get on this side of the pond. Id like to hear the UK side of the what we call the revolutionary war.

Im not slamming the UK. It just a part of history. Im not proud of the way the U.S, has acted in the past or right now. Just remenber we learned our bad habits from you:)

I think at that time in the UK, when only the 1 per-centers had the vote, you would have found a largish portion of the UK population would have been on your side.
Only 10 years earlier, had the last English - Scottish battle been fought, Culloden 1746.
And a few years latter the UK ruling classes were quaking in their boots, thinking the great unwashed were going to copy the French. French revolution started 1789.

Yes but we were on your side during our so called French and Indian war.

It's complicated isn't it. Probably a bit of what happened everywhere was because of peoples impatience and that communications were so slow.

I think if the UK had eased off the taxes to fight their war with France. After we had asked them numerious time to do. Wed still be apart of the UK. But NO, We were just colonials, The unwashed, Uneducated and disrepected fellow countrymen, Who just came to this country to make a better life.

We just wanted to be loyal citizens, But your attitude for us was what you displayed to many other subjects in your empire, At the time and up to the 20th century, SCREW YOU, We are your masters, live with it.

Now, That is the history we get on this side of the pond. Id like to hear the UK side of the what we call the revolutionary war.

Im not slamming the UK. It just a part of history. Im not proud of the way the U.S, has acted in the past or right now. Just remenber we learned our bad habits from you:)

I think at that time in the UK, when only the 1 per-centers had the vote, you would have found a largish portion of the UK population would have been on your side.
Only 10 years earlier, had the last English - Scottish battle been fought, Culloden 1746.
And a few years latter the UK ruling classes were quaking in their boots, thinking the great unwashed were going to copy the French. French revolution started 1789.

Yes but we were on your side during our so called French and Indian war.

It's complicated isn't it. Probably a bit of what happened everywhere was because of peoples impatience and that communications were so slow.

Seems communications are a lot faster and people are stil impatient.
____________
Old James

I'm not surprised that the USA establishment has the view it has about the British Empire and British involvement in America. It's a form of Jingoism to bolster National pride.

The British Empire was mainly formed to promote and bolster trade. England and later Britain, was a small island compared to the rest of the world. We didn't produce diamonds, furs, cotton, silks, spices, tobacco, indigo etc etc. but we had a strong home market for them. At it's height it 1920 it oversaw 1/5 of the worlds population and 1/4 of the earths land area. Trade with the Americas was important and we set up the Hudsons bay Company, similar to the East India Company in the Far East. The later independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. The term 'imperialism' should not be confused with ‘colonialism’. Imperialism operates from the center, it is a state policy, and is developed for ideological as well as financial reasons whereas colonialism is nothing more than development for settlement or commercial intentions.

Though Britain and the empire emerged victorious from the Second World War, the effects of the conflict were profound, both at home and abroad. Much of Europe, a continent that had dominated the world for several centuries, was in ruins, and host to the armies of the United States and the Soviet Union, who now held the balance of global power. Britain was left essentially bankrupt, with insolvency only averted in 1946 after the negotiation of a $US 4.33 billion loan (US$56 billion in 2012) from the United States, the last instalment of which was repaid in 2006.

At the same time, anti-colonial movements were on the rise in the colonies of European nations. The situation was complicated further by the increasing Cold War rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union. In principle, both nations were opposed to European colonialism. In practice, however, American anti-Communism prevailed over anti-imperialism, and therefore the United States supported the continued existence of the British Empire to keep Communist expansion in check.

Britain adopted a policy of peaceful disengagement from its colonies once stable, non-Communist governments were available to transfer power to. This was in contrast to other European powers such as France and Portugal, which waged costly and ultimately unsuccessful wars to keep their empires intact. Between 1945 and 1965, the number of people under British rule outside the UK itself fell from 700 million to five million.